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Fort Dearborn massacre, 









N. SIMMONS, M. D. 



LAWRENCE, KANSAS. 



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HEROES AND HEROINES 



OF THE 



Fort Dearborn Massacre 



-A- 



ROMANTIC AND TRAGIC HISTORY 



-OF- 



COMAL JOHN SIMMONS AND HIS HEROIC WIFE. 



• ALSO OF 

THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN CHICAGO. THE LAST SURVIVOR 

OF THE HORRID BUTCHERY. A FULL AND TRUE RECITAL 

OF MARVELOUS FORTITUDE. MATCHLESS COURAGE 

AND TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS DURING THE 

BATTLE, THE MARCH, AND IN .^ 

CAPTIVITY. 



By X." SIMMONS, M. D. 

JUU&18M/' 

LAWRENCE, KANSAS: 17/fL *^ 

Journal Publishing Company. 

18S0. 






COPYRIGHT, 1896. 

BY 

N. Simmons, M. D. 



PREFACE. 



Much of the material for this narrative has been 
obtained from Mrs. Simmons, an eye witness, and from 
her daughter, who was her companion in captivity, and 
with whom she resided for many years. Many histories 
have been consulted, but they are most unsatisfactory in 
their treatment of the details of the Fort Dearborn 
massacre, while the only reference to John Simmons on 
file in the department at Washington is that he drew 
$60 for his first year's service as a soldier. 

By the kind courtesv of E. G. Mason, Esq., President 
of the Chicago Historical Society, his masterly address, 
delivered at the unveiling of the Pullman Memorial 
Monument on the 22d of June, 1893, is inserted. In 
behalf of the large number of relatives and friends of the 
principal parties whose names are mentioned in this 
little book, I desire to express here their grateful ac- 
knowledgments to George M. Pullman, the donor of the 
beautiful monument to the memory of the slain of the 
massacre, and all associated with him in its conception 
and execution, especially E. G. Mason, historian, and 
Carl Rorhl-Smith, sculptor of the monument. 

My apology for this intrusion into the already over- 
wrought field of authorship is a desire to do justice to 
the memory of a brave soldier and his devoted wife, and 
also to add a few tacts to the brief history of the Fort 
Dearborn massacre. 



4 HEROES AND HEROINES 

The heroines and heroes of that awful day, whose 
blood sank into the sand dunes by the lake, or who 
experienced in captivity, an even more dreadful fate, are 
almost forgotten, but it may be interesting to know that 
the butchers of Fort Dearborn and their descendents 
have annually received many thousands of dollars from 
the United States government for their support. 

The name of the ancestors of John Simmons in 
Switzerland was Simons, the additional letter being first 
employed after their arrival in America. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Preface 3 

CHAPTER I. 

A Fortunate Meeting in the Wilderness. 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Married and Enlisted 13 

CHAPTER III. 
The Storm Gathering 15 

CHAPTER IV. 
A Tour Through the Wilderness 20 

CHAPTER V. 

Life at Fort Dearborn 25 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Order To Evacuate the Fort 28 

CHAPTER VII. 

Preparing to Evacuate the Fort 31 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Battle and Massacre. 35 



6 HEROES AND HEROINES 

CHAPTER IX. 

Captivity and Ransom 52 

CHAPTER X. 

The Massacre of Neighbors Her only 

Sister among Them 61 

CHAPTER XI. 
At Rest 67 

CHAPTER XII. 

Awaiting the End , 69 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Pottawatomie Tribe 72 




> 



• ■ 



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BLACK PARTRIDGE RETURNING HIS MEDAL. 




N. SIMMONS, M. D. 



HEROES AND HEROINES OF THE 
FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 



CHAPTER I. 



A FORTUNATE MEETING IN THE WILDERNESS. 

One bright evening in the early springtime of 1801 
two wagon trains entered simultaneously a beautiful 
grove on the banks of a limpid stream in eastern Ohio. 
The leaders of these trains at once discovered in each 
other friends and associates of boyhood days in the far 
away land of their nativity — charming Switzerland. In 
early manhood they had emigrated to America and with- 
out prearrangement become neighbors in Pennsylvania. 
Phillip Simmons with his wife and only son, John, had 
settled in York county on the Susquehanna river, while 
later on, the elder Millhouse located on the opposite 
shore of the same stream in Lancaster county. This 
opportune meeting in a strange land which both had 
sought for new homes was the welcome renewal of the 
former acquaintance in dear old Switzerland. This close 
relation of comradeship between the families continued 
for many years and was not fully dissolved until the 
year 1800, when Phillip Simmons and his wife having 
passed away in the ripened maturity of wholesome lives> 



10 HEROES AND HEROINES 

John Simmons was left at the head of the family, his 
own household consisting of six hardy sons and four 
daughters. To provide homes for this large family he 
determined to move to West Virginia. A short resi- 
dence there convinced this descendent of Alpine moun- 
tains that he had not as yet found a satisfactory abiding 
place. The bold freeman resolved that his children 
should not live under the blighting influences of human 
slavery. This purpose led him to consider seriously the 
possibilities of obtaining homes on a soil free from the 
hated institution. Fortunately, at that time one of the 
grandest domains on earth had been recently dedicated 
to freedom. 

The ordinance of 1787 forever prohibited slavery in 
the Northwest Territory lying north and west of the 
Ohio river. The resources of this new land were the 
subject of almost fabulous tales of its wonderful pro- 
ductiveness, the mildness of its climate, the beautiful 
streams fed by springs of crystal water, gurgling from 
the rocks and hill sides, the magnificent forests furnishing 
the finest timber for building purposes and teeming with 
wild game, the native grasses furnishing abundant food 
for horses and cattle, both winter and summer while the 
bountiful mast of the woods maintained the numerous 
hogs which ranged through them. 

This mere outline of the reports reaching the older 
settlements through the soldiers returning from the cam- 
paigns of Harmer, St. Clair and Wayne had awakened 
the spirit of adventure in these home seekers to the 
extent that they determined to dare the dangers arising 
from the hostility of the savages and seek their fortunes 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I I 

in the new Territory of Ohio. Simultaneously the 
persons composing a train headed by Mr. Millhouse, had 
arrived at the same conclusion, hence the meeting in the 
wilderness. In the early morning following, the leaders 
of the two trains determined to cast their fortunes 
together on the remainder of the journey to the great 
Miami valley in western Ohio. This combination of 
forces enabled the train to present a somewhat formid- 
able aspect as each male member carried a rifle on his 
shoulder or strapped to his back and a serviceable knife 
in his belt. 

In the Simmons family, John Simmons, Jr., a lad of 
but twelve years of age was the favorite, while the 
youngest daughter, Susan Millhouse, was most tenderly 
regarded by the other party. Though their parents had 
been friends and acquaintances, first in Switzerland, 
then again in Pennsylvania, John and Susan first met in 
camp, as above described. They soon became fast 
friends and they are here introduced to the reader as 
the hero and heroine of this narative. 

Though John Simmons was but a mere boy, he was 
tall, strong and alert beyond his years. With his trusty 
rifle he furnished his full quota of game for the combined 
train and performed regular guard duty besides. Indeed 
his general usefulness in camp and on the journey 
rendered him a favorite with all. His genial spirit and 
cheerful bearing was especially recognized by Susan 
Millhouse, who looked upon the young frontiersman as 
her ideal of the coming hero, and manifested her 
partiality for his presence by little acts of favoritism. 
These evidences of deep esteem for John from the 



12 HEROES AND HEROINES 

innocent girl were noticed with chagrin and mortification 
by a young man who had lived in the Millhouse family 
for some time, and was now emigrating with them to 
their new home. Thomas Rodgers was a fine athletic 
young fellow, but quiet and earnest. It had been his 
dream to win the hand of the youngest daughter of the 
Millhouse family, and it was with forebodings of disap- 
pointment that he witnessed the growing friendship 
between John Simmons and his idol. He continued to 
discharge his duties faithfully however, and with the 
exception of a disposition to ramble alone in the forest, 
seemingly without special purpose, and to isolate himself 
from society generally, no indication of his feeling was 
manifest. " Tom," as he was familiarly called, remained 
with the party to the end of the journey and with the 
Millhouse family long after the marriage of their daugh- 
ter. With this simple statement Tom will be dismissed 
for the present. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I'3 



CHAPTER II. 



MARRIED AND ENLISTED. 

After months of weary journeying the travelers finally 
stood upon the shore of the great Miami river near the 
present city of Dayton. Few settlers had preceded 
them and the only evidence of advancing civilization 
were the few military trails that traversed the wilderness 
between the outposts and Indian agencies. After a time 
spent in exploring lands along the Miami and its tribu- 
taries in the vicinity of Troy and Dayton, John Sim- 
mons, Sr. , selected six quarter sections of fertile land 
on upper Lost Creek, six miles east of Col. Johnson's 
Indian Agency on the site of the present Piqua. Having 
secured titles to these lands, the men who were to 
occupy them proceeded to build a large two-story double 
log house at a central point near a fine spring of ever 
flowing cold water. The walls were pierced with loop 
holes; barricades and other means of defense were pro- 
vided and all trees and bushes within gun-shot distance 
of the blockhouse were removed. It was consequently 
deemed impossible for an enemy to approach without 
exposure to the fire of the riflemen within. Here the 
family resided and in times of extreme danger the 
neighbors collected. It is needless to say that when Mr. 
Millhouse settled near the Simmons blockhouse, John, 
Jr., and Susan were delighted. Perhaps the latter had 



14 HEROES AND HEROINES 

reminded her father that there were six stalwart riflemen 
in the Simmons family, whose protection would be 
desirable in case of attack by the savages, and possibly 
her wishes were consulted in the selection of the home- 
stead site. 

Years passed amid constant dangers from the time the 
emigrants crossed the Ohio river. At that time John 
Simmons was but twelve years old. Young as he was 
he had been constantly on duty and every moment on 
the alert to prevent surprise by the Indians or wild 
beasts. It was not strange therefore that after eight 
years of this mode of life he embraced the first opportu- 
nity that presented after he had reached the age and 
strength required, to enlist in the regular army, some of 
the most important duties in which service having been 
learned in these individual experiences. In March, 
1808, John Simmons, Jr., and Susan Millhouse were 
married and in the latter part of 1809 David Simmons 
was born. On the 14th of March, 1810, John Simmons 
enlisted in Captain Whistler's Company, First Regiment, 
United States Infantry, afterward commanded by Cap- 
tain Nathan Heald, and was assigned to duty at Fort 
Dearborn on the site of the city of Chicago. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I 5 



CHAPTER III. 



THE STORM GATHERING. 

A brief study of the relation existing between the 
whites and Indians at this time is indispensable to a 
complete understanding of the perils that confronted 
the border settlers. As early as 1788 a settlement was 
made at Marietta and another at Cincinnati. The 
Indians alarmed at these and other aggressions main- 
tained a constant warfare on the border pioneers, often 
crossing the Ohio river into Pennsylvania, Virginia and 
Kentucky and robbing isolated settlers and returning to 
their villages in the interior. To stop these predatory 
incursions and bring the Indians to terms, General 
Harmer was sent with an army of 1400 men into the 
country of the hostiles. Late in the autumn of 1790 
he reached and destroyed the towns of the Miami 
Indians on the ground now occupied by Fort Wayne. 
The complete loss of their habitations and possessions 
was a severe blow to the savages, and doubtless rendered 
them desperate. To complete the work of destruction 
Gen. Harmer divided his army into three detachments 
which were cut to pieces in detail by the Indians under 
Little Turtle and Captain Wells. 

On November 3d. 1 791 , Gen. Arthur St. Clair with 
1400 soldiers encamped at Fort Recovery, near the 
Ohio and Indiana state* line. On the following morning 



1 6 HEROES AND HEROINES 

at early dawn the savages made a furious attack upon 
the camp which resulted in fearful slaughter and dis- 
astrous route of the surprised whites: Closely pursued 
the remnant of the army tied to Fort Washington. 
These victories emboldened the exhilarated Indians to 
repeated depredations and acts of pillage and murder. 
In August, 1794, Gen. Wayne, with 3000 troops attacked 
the hostiles near the Maumee Rapids and defeated them 
with great slaughter. Captain Wells, the former ally 
and son-in-law of Little Turtle acted as captain of 
scouts to Gen. Wayne. "Mad Anthony' took no 
trivial revenge upon the defeated enemy. Their fields 
and villages for fifty miles around were destroyed. 
Completely humbled and impoverished the late defiant 
victors sued for peace. Accordingly in 1795 a treaty 
was signed between Gen. Wayne and many of the Indian 
chiefs. A number refused to recognize the treaty how- 
ever, and at once began to prepare for the continuation 
of hostilities. It was during this enforced peace, late in 
1801 that the Simmons settlement was located in the 
interior of western Ohio in the midst of Indian villages. 
After Wayne's treaty a chain of forts was established on 
the border extending from Cincinnati west to Vincennes 
and St. Louis, north to Greenville, Fort Recovery, Fort 
Wayne, Fort Defiance, Fort Meigs, Detroit, Macinac, 
and northwest to Fort Dearborn (Chicago). Within 
this chain of posts were scores of Indian villages, teem- 
ing with old, scarred warriors who delighted in detailing 
the wrongs the tribes had suffered at the hands of the 
whites. The young warriors listened intently to these 
tales, and burned to avenge these indignities and injuries 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I 7 

without delay. A leader alone was required to begin 
hostilities at once, and with the demand came the man. 
The leading chiefs of the powerful Shawnee tribe were 
Tecumseh and his twin brother Telskwatawa, known as 
"The Prophet," two eloquent orators and able leaders. 
Tecumseh stirred the young warriors to the verge of 
frenzy with his firey recital of the outrages inflicted upon 
the Indians by the whites, while the Prophet aroused the 
strong religious and superstitious feelings of the tribe by 
his mysterious incantations. 

In 1806 Tecumseh and the Prophet established a 
village at Fort Greenville, twenty-six miles distant from 
the Simmons settlement, but in 1808 they removed to 
Tippecanoe, Indiana, to the great delight of the Ohio 
settlers. Undoubtedly this removal was made prepara- 
tory to the storm they intended should break upon the 
white settlers of the border, being for the purpose of 
placing their women and children beyond the doomed 
region. 

In 1809 the aoprehension of the whites reached its 
climax, and rapid preparations were made for defence. 
Block houses, often surrounded with stockades, were 
erected in each settlement. Militia companies were 
organized, and the whole population of the border put 
upon a war footing. In 18 10, house burning, horse 
stealing and murders were daily on the increase and 
had become so common that Gen. Harrison sent a 
message to Tecumseh, declaring that if these crimes 
against the white settlers did not cease he might expect 
to be attacked. To this message Tecumseh replied in 
person, but the interview was stormy and unsatisfactory, 



I 8 HEROES AND HEROINES 

and each proceeded at once to prepare for open hostili- 
ties; Tecumseh by visiting the Indian tribes in the south 
to secure their co-operation in the coming struggle, 
while Gen. Harrison collected his forces, and at once 
marched against the Shawnee village of Tippecanoe, 
where, on the 7th of November, 181 1, he defeated the 
Indians after a desperate engagement, and destroyed the 
village with the accumulated provisions for the coming 
winter. The records of history afford no grander episode 
than that of the crusade of Tecumseh. This eloquent 
champion, stealthy as the panther of his native wilds 
sprang from one tribe to another and enkindled every- 
where the smouldering embers of rapine and revenge 
into the fierce fires of war. But one theme was discussed 
at the numerous council fires which blazed from the oak 
forests of Michigan to the moss covered pines of Alabama. 
The whites were to be exterminated or driven across the 
Ohio. Many of the settlers had secured homes that 
were as dear to them as the lands on which they stood 
were to the Indians. So, to both parties it was to be a 
battle for their homes, therefore a battle to the death. 

With the certainty of an Indian war and of a conflict 
with Great Britain it was evident that the recruits who 
enlisted in the American army in 18 10 might confidently 
expect a speedy participation in bloody conflict. Against 
this assurance of the dangers of battle the government 
had only the paltry pittance of five dollars a month to 
offer these enlisted men, but the courage and patriotism 
that accepted these odds finds no worthy parallel. 
Grand as were all these voluntary supporters of the 
country in this dark hour, none were more sublime in 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I 9 

sacrifice than Private John Simmons. A young and 
affectionate wife and a babe less than a year old were left 
behind while he went to engage in a war with fiendish 
savages who took no prisoners but to torture them to 
death in the most cruel manner. The only exceptions 
to this awful custom was furnished when a captive 
woman or child was occasionally spared with intent to 
impress as a slave or adopt by a warrior. From such 
an enemy no mercy need be expected. The result of 
each encounter was to be complete victory or dreadful 
death. It is difficult therefore for the men of this gene- 
ration with its protracted season of peace and the almost 
universally acknowledged amenities of warfare to realize 
the value of such sacrifice and service. 



20 HEROES AND HEROINES 



CHAPTER IV. 



A TOUR THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 

John Simmons reached Fort Dearborn early in the 
spring of 1810 and at once entered upon his military 
duties which he performed with skill and fidelity, and at 
the end of the first year of service he modestly received 
his promotion to corporal, and with it a furlough which 
enabled him to visit his family. He had often accom- 
panied hunting and scouting parties along the lake shore 
and the Chicago river. He became enamored of the 
country around Fort Dearborn which is now occupied 
by Chicago and its suburbs. Swarms of water fowl 
covered the lakes and rivers while their waters teemed 
with the finest fish. Buffalo, elk, bear and deer, with 
a good variety of smaller game were found in abundance. 

On the vast prairies and along the wooded river 
bottoms the tall grass attested the great fertility of the 
soil, while the ease with which a farm could be opened 
by merely plowing the prairie as compared with the task 
of clearing the timber lands of western Ohio and eastern 
Indiana induced the young soldier to determine to settle 
there at the expiration of his term of seivice. He 
believed and frequently expressed the conviction that a 
great city would eventually be built near the fort. It 
was with these anticipations that John Simmons left the 
garrison and with rapid strides traversed the intervening 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 2 1 

wilderness to his home in Miami county, Ohio. Looking 
back almost a century one can scarcely realize the extasy 
with which the returned soldier met his aged father and 
mother, his devoted wife and curly headed boy who had 
in his absence taken his first steps, and learned to 
pronounce the sacred words "Mama" and "Papa." 
Equally difficult would it be for us to understand the 
emotions of the individual members of the little house- 
hold as the stalwart young officer, from whom presum- 
ably nothing had been heard during his absence, passed 
the heavy door and entered the well guarded enclusure. 
As John Simmons unfolded the marvelous tales of the 
Illinois country all members of the rejoicing family 
listened with engrossed interest. The vast meadows 
covered with luxuriant grass waving in the breeze, and 
bounded only to the observers view by the horizon, the 
herds of buffalo, deer and elk pasturing on these prairies, 
furnishing an abundance of excellent meat, while the 
lakes and rivers swarmed with an inexhaustible supply 
of food. His enthusiastic description produced un- 
bounded admiration and the narrator improved the 
advantage he had gained by revealing his desire to make 
the delectable land his future home, and for that purpose 
to take his little family with him on his return. This 
proposition startled his aged parents who having emi- 
grated from Europe to Pennsylvania, thence to Ohio, 
shrank from the thought of removing to Illinois. But 
the arguments John employed were so reasonable that 
they interposed but feeble opposition and contented 
themselves by expressing regrets that the parting must 
so soon occur and the hope that at the expiration of his 



22 HEROES AND HEROINES 

term of service he would return to them and make his 
home on the land which they had given him. To Mrs. 
Simmons, Jr., the return with her husband to Fort 
Dearborn was 'a momentous matter. - It involved a 
journey of four hundred miles through an almost track- 
less wilderness on foot with no shelter save that afforded 
by a small canvass stretched over the boughs of trees. 
But she had learned to trust her young soldier husband 
implicitly and for admirable cause. They had journeyed 
together from eastern Ohio to their home in Miami 
county, as neighbors and lovers they had been intimately 
acquainted for seven years; she had scarcely claimed 
him as her own before surrendering him to her country 
as a soldier. His promotion in the absence of wealth or 
influential friends to urge his cause was to her the best 
assurance of his merit. As he stood before her, nearly 
six feet in height, with massive frame, in the liberal 
endowment of muscular young manhood, clad in the 
neat army uniform, a mature man, an experienced back- 
woodsman and a brave soldier, his young wife felt that 
his plea for her companionship during the remaining 
period of his enlistment was already granted. Never 
had his influence over her been so controling, her love 
for him so overpowering. It was, however, no blind 
passion which assented to the hard conditions of the 
proposition. The devoted wife was no novice in the 
knowledge of the dangers to be expected on the con- 
templated journey. It was therefore with full under- 
standing of the situation that she gave her cheerful 
consent to accompany her husband on his return. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 2 3 

Mrs. Simmons, although of but medium height, pos- 
sessed a physical frame and organization capable of 
great endurance. Aware, at least partially, of the 
demands to be made upon her constitution, she entered 
into the work of preparation for the journey intelligently, 
and the progress of the dreary march revealed her wise 
forethought in providing as far as possible for the comfort 
and relief of her cherished companions. Still, little 
time remained to complete the preparations and little 
was the amount they were able to transport, as a single 
pack horse was expected to carry the cooking utensils, 
camp equipage, provisions and extra clothing. John led 
the horse and bore his heavy rifle upon which so much 
of the safety and supply of the little party depended, 
while Susan trudged along carrying the child. So they 
set out one morning in the latter part of March, 1 8 1 1 . 
The last parting had been a trying event. To the 
friends who had collected to see the adventurous pilgrims 
depart on their fearful journey it seemed the last farewell. 
To the aged father and mother of both John and Susan 
the parting was indescribably painful. Little David 
received a full share of tearful affection of all who had 
known him as the sunshine of the home he had so 
recently come to bless, and which was to see him no 
more. Reasonable as were the sad anticipations of the 
sorrowful friends, none could foretell the awful fate of 
the small party, but one of whom was to return. 

On the first day the family was escorted to Piqua 
where they crossed the Miami river and pushed on to 
Stillwater, where Covington now stands and there en- 
camped, having traveled fifteen miles. On the second 



24 HEROES AND HEROINES 

day they reached Fort Greenville. Here their escort 
returned. From Fort Greenville they bore a little west 
of north to Fort Recovery, a distance of thirty-five miles. 
Their next point was Fort Wayne, distance eighty miles, 
where they rested for a day and secured provisions for 
the remainder of the journey to Fort Dearborn, the route 
traveled being near two hundred miles. The time 
occupied in making the trip to Fort Dearborn from Ohio 
was about thirty days. To persons acquainted with the 
country traveled it is a marvel that they succeeded in 
making the journey in that time, as at that season of the 
year (April) the streams were usually full and difficult to 
ford, and they were compelled to make long detours to 
pass around the swamps covered with water which lay 
on their way. Then, the constant fear of falling in with 
scalping parties of savages required incessant watchful- 
ness. Wearisome days were succeeded by sleepless nights 
and neither of the parents for an hour were free from 
apprehension. 

Long years after this journey, while Mrs. Simmons 
enjoyed repose in the society of friends she often declared 
that she enjoyed the trip as though it had been a pleasure 
excursion, but it is possible that this view was suggested 
by the contrast with her subsequent experiences. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 25' 



CHAPTER V. 



LIFE AT FORT DEARBORN. 

It was late in April when the little party entered the 
gate at Fort Dearborn, tired and foot sore. The young- 
soldier was complimented by his comrades in arms for 
his bravery in making- the journey to and from Ohio. A 
universal favorite before, this adventure greatly enhanced 
his reputation as a soldier of skill and spirit. His supe- 
rior officers confided important duties to his care and 
command which he always executed with the strictest 
fidelity. Mrs. Simmons watched with admiration and 
delight the growing confidence reposed in her husband. 
For herself, she soon shared with her husband the esteem 
of the entire garrison. 

The people of the fort, consisting of soldiers, women 
and children, were less than one hundred in number. 
The imminence of a common danger united all in a 
common union. They were far from civilization, far 
from succor in case of an attack by a strong enemy. 
Rumors of threatened hostilities were frequently brought 
to the fort by scouts or friendly Indians. Into such a 
community, thus bound together by a tie stronger than 
any known to humanity, it was not difficult for the heroic 
woman to obtain speedy entrance into any circle in the 
limited society of the post. Her splendid courage and 
endurance during the long and wearisome march, and 



-26 HEROES AND HEROINES 

her thorough acquaintance with Indian character, ac- 
quired by long residences in the midst of savage settle- 
ments, rendered her opinions almost as valuable as those 
of her husband. On account of his participation in the 
journey, little David, now three years old, was familiarly 
called "the little curly headed corporal," and soon 
became a pet of all in the garrison. 

In November, 1.811, Gen. Harrison defeated the 
Indians at Tippecanoe and destroyed their village. The 
loss to the hostiles of the stores collected for winter 
entailed great hardship upon them. The news of this 
battle reached Fort Dearborn by the way of Detroit, 
Fort Macinac and lake Michigan, and warned the garri- 
son of impending danger. The gratification over the 
success of the engagement was mingled in the minds of 
the occupants of the isolated post by the reflection that 
while it was then too late in the season for the enraged 
tribes to lay siege to Fort Dearborn a renewal of hostili- 
ties might be expected on the return of spring. 

Aggressions and indignities were so frequently inflicted 
upon American citizens by the officers and agents of the 
English government, that in June, 181 2, war was de- 
clared against Great Britain, and in July the British and 
Indians captured Fort Macinac. The officers of this 
post first learned of the declaration of war from the 
enemy, a fact which suggests incompetency or criminal 
neglect on the part of high officials. 

On the 12th day of February, 1812, a daughter was 
born to Corporal Simmons, being one of the first white 
children, if not the first, born within the limits of the 
present city of Chicago. She came to brighten the few 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 2/ 

remaining months of her little brother's life, as a source 
of consolation to her mother in widowhood and bondage, 
and to sustain and comfort her in her declining years. 
At this writing she is reposing at the age of 83 years in 
the beautiful California home of her daughter. In honor 
of his devoted wife, Corporal Simmons named the little 
stranger Susan Simmons. 



28 HEROES AND HEROINES 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE ORDER TO EVACUATE THE FORT. 

With Macinac, the key to lake Michigan, in possession 
of the British and Indians, with Detroit practically 
beleaguered, while assistance from Fort Wayne or Vin- 
cennes was out of the question, Fort Dearborn should 
have been evacuated at once. There were no settlers 
near to protect, the garrison was too weak to venture 
beyond the walls of the fort and too far from other 
military posts to render them any assistance or to receive 
succor from them in case of attack. Such was the 
condition of Fort Dearborn on the seventh day of August, 
i Si 2, when Captain Heald received the order from Gen. 
Hull, who had reported to the war department on July 
29th, that he would send " at once. " The order being 
nine days in transit reached the fort on the 7th of August. 
It was obvious that every moment of delay increased the 
danger of the garrison. Whether it should be decided 
to remain or withdraw, this fact was equally manifest. 
Why, therefore, Captain Heald faltered for seven days 
is a serious question. The inexplicable delay gave the 
Indians an opportunity to collect their warriors from the 
Pottawatomie villages in the vicinity. This was done 
industriously during the week extending from the 7th to 
the 14th of August. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 20, 

On the 14th of August Captain Heald determined to 
evacuate the fort on the following day. On that day he 
concluded a treaty with the Indians by the terms of 
which the savages were to be given all the stores of the 
fort not required on the march in consideration of which 
the Indians stipulated to escort the garrison to Fort 
Wayne in safety. On the evening of the 14th, after the 
treaty had been made and the Indians had doubtless 
fully matured their plans for the following day, which 
without doubt included the capture of the entire garrison 
when decoyed into the open prairie, Black Partridge, 
a Pottawatomie chief, warned Captain Heald of the 
determination on the part of the Indians by returning to 
him a valuable medal with the statement that his young 
men had determined to wash their hands in the blood of 
the whites and that he could not restrain them. Then, 
in tones of sadness, he closed his remarkable speech 
with the most emphatic warning, saying: "Linden 
birds have been singing in my ears to-day; be careful on 
the march you are about to make." The fact that near 
five hundred armed warriors had collected in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the fort of itself boded no good to the 
garrison, but the warning of Black Partridge, couched 
in the most significant language and delivered in terms 
of sadness and sorrow, should have changed doubt and 
suspicion in the mind of Captain Heald into positive 
certainty. Perhaps the warning came too late for the 
commandant to retrace his steps and prepare for defense, 
but it should have led to more prudent alignment of the 
troops on the line of retreat. The destruction of surplus 
stores, notably powder and whiskey, while perhaps 



30 HEROES AND HEROINES 

justifiable on account of the inevitable excesses their 
possession would cause, was made a pretext by the 
Indians to excuse their treachery. But the falseness of 
this plea is proved by the words of Black Partridge, 
which shows that the bloody purpose had been deter- 
mined on before the evacuation. Still, it may be possible 
that the act stimulated the savages to greater cruelty in 
their treatment of the whites. If there was any doubt 
as to the good intentions of Black Partridge in warning 
the garrison on the evening before the evacuation, it 
disappeared as the fact of his repeated intervention to 
save the lives of the doomed inmates was manifest 

It was a rash and ill considered act on the part of the 
government in planting a feeble post so far from support. 
Immediately upon the declaration of war, and especially 
after the fall of Mackinac it should have been evacuated. 
Promptly on the receipt of Gen. Hull's discretionary 
order Captain Heald should have abandoned the fort, 
and marched with all possible speed to Fort Wayne or 
he should have made the best possible preparation for 
defense and seige, but seven days of indecision coupled 
with previous neglect and incompetency caused the 
destruction of the brave garrison and the obliteration of 
the first Chicago. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 3 1 



CHAPTER VII. 



PREPARING TO EVACUATE THE FORT. 

On the evening of the 14th the garrison was busy 
loading the wagons for the journey which would occupy 
from eight to ten days. Provisions and camp equipage 
constituted the principal part of these loads. In the 
grave peril which confronted them the members of the 
garrison were more united in sentiment and action than 
ever before. The soldiers filled their powder horns r 
adjusted their flints, loaded their bullet pouches, and 
every possible preparation was made for defense, believing 
the moment they left the friendly walls of the fort they 
would be at the mercy of an overwhelming army of 
savages. Many of the little Spartan band vowed to 
defend the women and children with their lives, and for 
this purpose the best possible preparations were made. 
Corporal Simmons fully realized the fearful responsibility 
that rested upon him, and not one of the small command 
prepared to march through the gate of the fort and out 
into the presence of the Indians with a firmer determin- 
ation to do his whole duty. True not one of them had 
greater incentive to perform a soldier's part. His con- 
stant thought was of the noble woman who had been his 
faithful friend on the perilous journey through the 
wilderness of Ohio, and later became his idolized wife; 
and who in a spirit fitting a soldier's bride, gave him to 



32 HEROES AND HEROINES 

the service of his country a little more than two years 
before. His heart swelled often while engaged in the 
monotonous routine of his regular duty as he recalled 
her grand comradeship, on the long tramp through the 
dense forests in western Ohio and across Indiana to this 
forlorn hope. Intimately and inseparably connected 
with remembrances of his heroic wife, Corporal Simmons 
never forgot their first born, little David, the "curly 
headed corporal," full of life and happy in the love of 
papa and mama, and the infant Susan, six months and 
two days old, the delight and joy of the little family and 
the pet and play fellow of even the roughest soldiers in 
the camp. On that sad evening, as John Simmons 
looked upon this group confided to his protection he 
resolved that harm could only reach them over his dead 
body. With what fidelity he redeemed this vow will be 
revealed later on. 

The great number of warriors camped in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the fort required a strong guard for the 
night to prevent a surprise. The other soldiers slept a 
fitful sleep upon their arms. The women of the garrison, 
a majority of whom had small children, were busy in 
preparing for the march. Among these was Mrs. Sim- 
mons, who early in the evening had endeavored to put 
her babe to sleep so that she might complete the 
preparations necessary for the long march. The " little 
corporal," David, had noticed the unusual stir and 
preparation going on around him, and was exceedingly 
anxious to know what it all meant. "Where were they 
going?" " Would he ride in the big wagon? " " Were 
they going to grandpa's in Ohio? " These with many 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 33 

other questions were eagerly asked and years afterward 
rang in the ears of Mrs. Simmons when she recalled the 
events of that last gloomy night in Fort Dearborn. It 
was late in the evening when little David, tired of 
watching the busy scene and overcome by weariness, 
repeated his little prayer on his mother's lap for the last 
time and received his good night kiss from father and 
mother. The young soldier and wife now discussed the 
probabilities of the morrow. He was familiar with all 
the details of the proposed evacuation. During the day 
Captain Wells one of the most famous Indian fighters 
of the frontier arrived with twenty friendly warriors of 
the Miami tribe, for the purpose of rendering assistance 
to the beleaguered garrison or to escort them to Fort 
Wayne in case of evacuation. Captain Wells was 
present and heard the declaration of Black Partridge 
that his young men had determined to imbue their hands 
in the blood of the whites and that he could not restrain 
them. Wells knew the chief intimately and reposed the 
utmost confidence in his truthfulness. This statement 
therefore convinced him of the danger which confronted 
them. Corporal Simmons informed his wife of the order 
to secretly destroy the whiskey and ammunition which 
Captain Heald had promised the Indians, and of his 
belief that should the savages discover this they would 
not hesitate to murder the garrison. He did not 
conceal from her his opinion that the peril seemed 
imminent for he realized that the whites would be com- 
pelled to fight for their lives with odds of eight to one 
against them. It may be well supposed that the night 
was far advanced before sleep came to their relief from 



34 HEROES AND HEROINES 

the heavy burdens which oppressed mind and body, and 
that early dawn found them astir and preparing for the 
fearful ordeal before them. All night dark objects were 
seen moving about outside the fort, showing to the 
guards who were ever on the alert that the Indians were 
on the watch to prevent the admittance of farther rein- 
forcements and the dispatch of couriers for succor. 

At an early hour on the morning of the 15th day of 
August, 181 2, the troops were mustered within the 
stockade and inspected. The roll was called and 
answered for the last time. Fifty-four regular soldiers 
and twelve militia men stood in line, presenting a feeble 
array with which to engage five hundred fierce warriors 
on the open prairie. The troops were dismissed for the 
last breakfast they were destined to eat together, with 
orders to be ready to march at nine o'clock. While the 
troops were engaged in eating breakfast and preparing 
for the march the Indians just outside the stockade were 
eating a meal furnished from the stores of the fort the 
day before, and arranging apparently to escort the 
garrison on its march to safety, while in reality the}" 
were preparing to decoy it to its doom. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 35 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE BATTLE AND MASSACRE. 

Preparations for the evacuation having been completed 
and the fatal hour having arrived, the line of march was 
formed within the stockade as described by E. G. Mason, 
Esq., President of the Chicago Historical Society, in his 
masterly address delivered at the unveiling of the 
Pullman Memorial Monument, which is here inserted in 
full, as follows: 

"The Chicago Historical Society accepts this noble gift 
in trust for our city and for posterity with high appreciation 
of the generosity, the public spirit, and the regard for 
history of the donor. It realizes that this monument so 
wisely planned and so superbly executed is to be preserved 
not simply as a splendid ornament of our city but also as a 
most impressive record of its history- This group, repre- 
senting to the life the thrilling scene enacted perchance on 
the very spot on which it stands, barely eighty years ago, 
and its present surroundings, make most vivid the tremen- 
dous contrast between the Chicago of 1812 and the Chicago 
of 1893. It teaches thus the marvelous growth of our city, 
and it commemorates as well the trials and the sorrows of 
those who suffered here in the cause of civilization. The 
tragedy which it recalls, though it seemed to extinguish 
the infant settlement in blood, was in reality one which 
nerved men's arms and fired their hearts to the efforts 
-vhich rescued this r^eion from the invader and the barba- 



36 HEROES AND HEROINES 

rian. The story which it tells is therefore of deeper 

significance than many that have to do with 

' Battles, and the breath 
Of stormy war and violent death,' 

and it is one which should never be forgotten. 

"With its suggestions before us how readily we can pic- 
ture to ourselves the events of that 15th day of August in the 
year of grace 18 12. Hardly a week before there had come 
through the forest and across the prairie to the lonely Fort 
Dearborn an Indian runner, like a clansman with the fiery 
cross, bearing the news of the battle and disaster. War 
with Great Britain had been declared in June, Mackinac 
had fallen into the hands of the enemy in July, and with 
these alarming tidings the red messenger brought an order 
from the commanding general at Detroit, contemplating 
the abandonment of this frontier post. Concerning the 
terms of his order authorities have differed. Capt. Heald, 
who received it, speaks of it as a peremptory command to 
evacuate the fort. Others with good means of knowledge 
say that the dispatch directed him to vacate the fort if 
practicable. But General Hull who sent the order, settles 
this question in a report to the War Department which has 
recently come to light. Writing under date of July 29th, 
18 1 2, he says: 

" 'I shall immediately send an express to Fort Dearborn 
with orders to evacuate that post and retreat to this place 
(Detroit) or Fort Wayne, provided it can be effected with 
a greater prospect of safety than to remain. Capt. Heald 
is a judicious officer and I shall confide much to his 
discretion.' 

"The decision whether to go or stay rested therefore 
with Capt. Nathan Heald, and truly the responsibility was 
a heavy one. Signs of Indian hostility had not been want- 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 37 

ing. But the evening before Black Partridge, a chief of 
the Pottawatomie tribe, long a friend of the whites, had 
entered the quarters of the commanding officer and handed 
to him the medal which the warrior wore in token of ser- 
vices to the American cause in the Indian campaigns of 
' Mad ' Anthony Wayne. With dignity and with sadness 
the native orator said : 

" ' Father, I come to deliver up to you the medal I wear. 
It was given me by the Americans, and I have long worn 
it in token of our mutual friendship. But our young men 
are resolved to imbue their hands in the blood of the 
whites. I cannot restrain them and I will not wear a token 
of peace while I am compelled to act as an enemy.' 

"This striking incident has been fitly chosen as the 
subject of one of the reliefs on the pedestal of the monu- 
ment. It typifies the relations between the hapless whites 
and their red neighbors at the moment and the causes 
which had changed friendship into hatred, and it sounds 
the note of coming doom. 

"On that dreary day one gleam of light fell across the 
path of the perplexed commander. Gapt. William Wells 
arrived from Fort Wayne with a small party of friendly 
Miami Indians to share the fortunes of the imperiled garri- 
son. This gallant man, destined to be the chief hero and 
victim of the Chicago massacre, had had a most remarkable 
career. Of a good Kentucky family, he was stolen when a 
boy of 12 by the Miami Indians and adopted by their great 
chief, Me-che-kau-nah-qua, or Little Turtle, whose daughter 
became his wife. He fought on the side of the red men in 
their defeat of Gen Harmar in 1790 and Gen. St. Clair in 
1791. Discovered by his Kentucky kindred when he had 
reached years of manhood, he was persuaded to ally himself 
with his own race, and took formal leave of his Indian 
comrades, avowing henceforth his enmity to them. Joining 



38 HEROES AND HEROINES 

Wayne's army, he was made captain of a company of 
scouts, and was a most faithful and valuable officer. When 
peace came with the treaty of Greenville in 1795, he de- 
voted himself to obtaining an education, and succeeded so 
well that he was appointed Indian agent and served in that 
capacity at Chicago as early as 1803, and later at Fort 
Wayne, where he was also government interpreter and a 
Justice of the Peace. Here he heard of the probable 
evacuation of the post at Chicago, and knowing the temper 
of the Indians, he gathered such force as he could and 
made a rapid march across the country to save or die with 
his friends at Fort Dearborn, among whom the wife of Capt. 
Heald was his own favorite niece, whose gentle influence 
had been most potent in winning him back from barbarism 
years before. It seemed almost as if he had resolved to 
atone for the period in which he had ignorantly antagonized 
his own people by a supreme effort in their behalf against 
the race which had so nearly made him a savage. 

" He came too late to effect any change in Capt. Heald's 
plans. The abandonment was resolved upon, and the 
stores and ammunition were in part destroyed and in part 
divided among the Indians, who were soon to make so base 
a return for these gifts. At 9 o'clock on that fatal summer 
morning the march began from the little fort, which stood 
where Michigan avenue and River street now join on a 
slight eminence around which the river wound to find its 
way to the lake near the present terminus of Madison street. 
The garrison bade farewell to the rude stockade and the log 
barracks and magazine and two corner blockhouses which 
composed the first Fort Dearborn. When this only place 
of safety was left behind, the straggling line stretched out 
along the shore of the lake, Capt. Wells and a part of his 
Miamis in the van, half a company of regulars and a dozen 
militiamen, and the wagons with the women and children 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 39 

following, and the remainder of the Miamis bringing up 
the rear. You may see it all on the panel on the monument, 
which recalls from the past and makes very real this 
mournful march to death. The escort of Pottawatomies, 
which that treacherous tribe had glibly promised to Capt. 
Heald, kept abreast of the troops until they reached the 
sand hills intervening between the prairie and the lake, 
and here the Indians disappeared behind the ridge. The 
whites kept on near the water to a point a mile and a half 
from the fort and about where Fourteenth street now ends, 
when Wells in the advance was seen to turn and ride back, 
swinging his hat around his head in a circle, which meant 
in the sign language of the frontier: 'We are surrounded 
by Indians.' 

"As soon as he came within hearing he shouted: 'We 
are surrounded; march up on the sand ridges.' And all at 
once, in the graphic language of Mrs. Heald, they saw 
' the Indians' heads sticking up and down again, here and 
there, like turtles out of the water.' 

" Instantly a volley was showered down from the sand 
hills, the troops were brought into line, and charged up the 
bank, one man, a veteran of seventy years, falling as they 
ascended. Wells shouted to Heald, ' Charge them! ' and 
then led on and broke the line of the Indians, who scattered 
right and left. Another charge was made, in which Wells 
did deadly execution upon the perfidious barbarians, load- 
ing and firing two pistols and a gun in rapid succession. 
But the Pottawatomies, beaten in front, closed in on the 
flanks. The cowardly Miamis rendered no assistance, and 
in fifteen minutes' time the savages had possession of the 
baggage train and were slaying the women and children. 
Heald and the remnant of his command were isolated on a 
mound in the prairie. He had lost all his officers and half 



4-0 HEROES AND HEROINES 

his men, was himself sorely wounded, and there was no 
choice but to surrender. 

"Such, in merest outline, was the battle, and one of its 
saddest incidents was the death of Capt. Wells. As he 
rode back from the fray, desperately wounded, he met his 
niece and bade her farewell, raying: 'Tell my wife, if you 
live to see her — but I think it doubtful if a single one 
escapes — tell her 1 died at my post; doing the best I could. 
There are seven red devils over there that I have killed.' 
As he spoke his horse fell, pinning him to the ground. A 
group of Indians approached; he took deliberate aim and 
fired, killing one of them. As the others drew near, with a last 
effort he proudly lifted his head, saying: 'Shoot away,' 
and the fatal shot was fired. 

"So died Chicago's hero, whose tragic fate and the hot 
fight in which he fell are aptly selected as the subjects of 
the other bas-reliefs of this monument. The bronze group 
which crowns it is an epitome of the whole struggle, 
revealing its desperate character, the kind of foemen whom 
our soldiers had to meet, and their mode of warfare, their 
merciless treatment of women and children, and setting 
forth the one touch of romance in the grim record of the 
Chicago massacre. It illustrates the moment when the 
young wife of Lieut. Helm, second in command of the fort, 
was attacked by an Indian lad, who struck her on the 
shoulder with a tomahawk. To prevent him from using 
his weapons she siezed him around the neck and strove to 
get possession of the scalping-knife which hung in a scab- 
bard over his breast. In the midst of the struggle she was 
dragged from the grasp of her assailant by an older Indian. 
He bore her to the lake and plunged her into the waves; 
but she quickly perceived that his object was not to drown 
her, as he held her head above water. Gazing intently at 
him she soon recognized, in spite of the paint with which 



FORT PEAKBORN MASSACRE. 4 1 

he was disguised, the whilom friend of the whites, Black 
Partridge, who saved her from further harm and restored 
her to her friends. For this good deed, and others, too, 
this noble chief should be held in kindly remembrance. 

"It is difficult to realize that such scenes could have 
taken place where we meet to-day: but history and tradi- 
tion alike bear witness that we are assembled near the 
center of that bloody battlefield. From the place on the 
lake shore a few blocks to the north, where Wells' signal 
halted the column over the parallel sand ridges southwest- 
erly along the prairie and through the bushy ravines 
between, the running fight continued probably as far as the 
present intersection of Twenty-first street and Indiana 
avenue, where one of our soldiers was slain and scalped, 
and still lies buried. Just over on Michigan avenue must 
have been the little eminence on the prairie on which 
Heald made his last rally, and right before us the skulking 
savages, who had given away at the advance of our men, 
gathered in their rear around the few wagons which had 
vainly sought to keep under the cover of our line. 

"If this gaunt old cottonwood, long known as the 
'Massacre Tree,' could speak, what a tale of horror it 
would tell. For tradition, strong as Holy Writ, affirms 
that between this tree and its neighbor, the roots of which 
still remain beneath the pavement, the baggage wagon 
containing twelve children of the white families of the fort, 
and one young savage climbed into it, tomahawked the 
entire group.* A little while and this sole witness of that 
deed of woe must pass away. But the duty of preserving 



*Mrs. Simmons was perhaps the only person who witnessed the details in 
and around the government wagon who escaped from captivity, and she 
always placed the number of children killed in the wagon at nine, the 
other three who were murdered were on foot. 



42 HEROES AND HEROINES 

the name and the locality of the Chicago massacre, which 
has been its charge for so many years, is now transferred 
to this stately monument, which will faithfully perform it 
long after the fall of the 'Massacre Tree.' 

"Capt. Heald's whole party, not including the Miami 
detachment, when they marched out of Fort Dearborn 
comprised fifty-four regulars, twelve militiamen, nine 
women and eighteen children — ninety-three white persons 
in all. Of these twenty-six regulars and the twelve militia- 
men were slain in action, two women and twelve children 
were murdered on the field, and five regulars were bar- 
barously put to death, after the surrender. There remained 
then but thirty-six of the whole party of ninety-three, and 
of the sixty-six fighting men who met their red foemen 
here that day only twenty-three survived. These, with 
seven women and six children, were prisoners in the hands 
of the savages. We know of the romantic escape, by the 
aid of friendly Indians, of Capt. and Mrs. Heald and 
Lieut, and Mrs. Helm; and three of the soldiers, one of 
whom was Orderly Sergeant William Griffith, in less than 
two months after the massacre found their way to Michi- 
gan, bringing the sad news from Fort Dearborn. Hull's 
surrender had placed Detroit in the hands of the enemy; 
but the Territorial Chief Justice, Woodward, the highest 
United States authority there, in a ringing letter to the 
British Commander, Col. Proctor, under date of October 
8, 1812, demanded in the name of humanity that instant 
means should be taken for the preservation of these un- 
happy captives by sending special messengers among the 
Indians to collect the prisoners and bring them to the 
nearest army post, and that orders to co-operate should be 
issued to the British officers on the lakes. Col. Proctor 
one month before had been informed by his own people of 
the bloody work at Chicago, and had reported the same to 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 43 

his superior offcer, Maj. Gen. Brock, but had contented 
himself with remarking that he had no knowledge of any 
attack having been intended by the Indians on Chicago, 
nor could the}' indeed be said to be within the influence of 
the British. 

"Now, spurred to action by Judge Woodward's clear 
and forcible presentation of the case, Proctor promised to 
use the most effective means in his power for the speedy 
release from slavery of these unfortunate individuals. He 
committed the matter to Robert Dickson, British agent to 
the Indians of the Western Nations, who proceeded about 
it leisurely enough. March 16, 1813, he wrote from St. 
Joseph's Lake, Michigan, that there remained of the ill- 
fated garrison of Chicago, captives among the Indians, 
seventeen soldiers, four women, and some children, and 
that he had taken the necessary steps for their redemption 
and had the fullest confidence that he should succeed in 
getting the whole. Six days later he came to Chicago and 
inspected the ruined fort, where, as he says, there remained 
only two pieces of brass ordinance, three-pounders — one 
in the river, with wheels, and the other dismounted — a 
powder magazine, well preserved, and a few houses on the 
outside of the fort, in good condition. The desolation 
apparently was not relieved by the presence of a single 
inhabitant. Such was the appearance of Chicago in the 
spring following the massacre. Of these seventeen soldiers, 
the nine who survived their long imprisonment were 
ransomed by a French trader and sent to Quebec, and 
ultimately reached Plattsburg, N. Y., in the summer of 
1814. Of the women, two were rescued from slavery, one 
by the kindness of Black Partridge; and the others doubt- 
less perished in captivity. Of the children, we only hear 
again of one. In a letter written to Maj. Gen. Proctor by 
Capt. Bullock, the British commander at Mackinac, Sep- 



44 HEROES AND HEROINES 

tember 25, 1813, he says: 'There is also here a boy 
(Peter Bell ), 5 or 6 years of age, whose father and mother 
were killed at Chicago. The boy was purchased from the 
Indians by a trader and brought here last July by direction 
of Mr. Dickson.' Of the six little people who fell into 
the hands of the Indians this one small waif alone seems 
to have floated to the shore of freedom.* 

"The Pottawatomies, after the battle and the burning of 
the fort, divided their booty and prisoners and scattered, 
some to their villages, some to join their brethren in the 
siege of Fort Wayne. Here they were foiled by the timely 
arrival of William Henry Harrison, then Governor of the 
Indiana Territory, with a force of Kentucky and Ohio 
troops, and condign punishment was inflicted upon a part 
at least of the Chicago murderers. A detachment which 
Gen. Harrison assigned to this work was commanded by 
Col. Samuel Wells, who must have remembered his 
brother's death when he destroyed the village of Five 
Medals, a leading Pottawatomie chief. To one of the 
ruthless demons who slew women and children under the 
branches of this tree, such an appropriate vengeance came 
that it seems fitting to tell the story here. He was older 
than most of the band, a participant in many battles, and 
a deadly enemy of the whites. His scanty hair was drawn 
tightly upward and tied with a string, making a tuft on top 
of his head, and from this peculiarity he was known as 
Chief Shavehead. Years after the Chicago massacre he 
was a hunter in Western Michigan and when in liquor was 
fond of boasting of his achievements on the warpath. On 
one of these occasions in the streets of a little village he 
told the fearful tale of his doings on this field with all its 
horrors; but among his hearers chanced to be a soldier of 



*It is due Mr. Mason to say that he had no knowledge of Mrs. Simmons 
and her child until after he delivered his memorial address. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 45 

the garrison of Fort Dearborn, one of the few survivors of 
that fatal day. As he listened he saw that frightful scene 
again, and was maddened by its recall. At sundown the 
old brave left the settlement, and silently on his trail the 
soldier came, 'with his gun,' says the account, 'resting in 
the hollow of his left arm and the right hand clasped around 
the lock, with his forefinger carelessly toying with the 
trigger.' The red man and the white passed into the 
shade of the forest; the soldier returned alone; Chief 
Shavehead was never seen again. He had paid the penalty 
of his crime to one who could, with some fitness, exact it. 
Such was the fate of a chief actor in the dark scene enacted 
here. 

"Many others of the Pottawatomie tribe joined the 
British forces in the field, and at the battle of the Thames, 
October 5, 181 3, they were confronted again by Harrison 
and his riflemen, who then avenged the slaughter at 
Chicago upon some of its perpetrators. Victor and victim 
alike have passed away. The story of their struggle 
remains, and this masterpiece will be an object-lesson 
teaching it to after generations. Mr. Pullman's liberal and 
thoughtful action is a needed recognition of the importance 
and interest of our early history, an inspiration to its study, 
and an example which may well be followed. The event 
which this monument commemorates, its principal inci- 
dents, and the after fortunes of those concerned in it, have 
been briefly sketched and much has necessarily been left 
unsaid. But we should not omit a grateful recognition of 
the able civillian soldier, William Henry Harrison, who 
stayed the tide of barbarism which flowed from the Chicago 
massacre, and humbled the tribe which was responsible 
for that lurid tragedy. The name of Harrison is intimately 
and honorably associated with the early days in the North- 
west, with the war of 181 2, and with the highest office in 



46 HEROES AND HEROINES 

the gift of the American people half a century ago. It is 
likewise intimately and honorably associated with the later 
days of the Northwest and the great civil war, and again 
with the highest office in the gift of the American people 
in our own times. It is fitting that the distinguished 
descendant of William Henry Harrison should be here to- 
day. It is a high honor that the eminent ex-President of 
the United States should grace this occasion with his 
presence, which makes these exercises complete." 

Mr. Mason having told the story of the Fort Dearborn 
tragedy as it deserves and as it has never before been 
told, it remains for this humble sketch to devote itself 
chiefly to the fate of the persons with whom our story 
especially deals. 

Returning to the fort where we left the line of march 
forming, Corporal Simmons remained by the wagon until 
his duty called him away. He then lifted David, "the 
curly headed Corporal," in his arms and, after both 
father and mother had kissed him for the last time, he 
placed him in the government wagon, then turning to 
his wife who held their babe, he embraced and kissed 
both, then held the babe up to receive the last kiss from 
its little brother. Then bidding his brave and faithful 
wife remain close by the children in the wagon he took 
his place among the troops who were ordered to guard 
the wagons and women and children, a position in which 
he had requested to be placed that he might defend his 
family to the last. Little David with eight other chil- 
dren, too small to walk, occupied the government wagon 
as it was called. Mrs. Simmons carried her babe in her 
arms while Peter Bell, six years old, with seven other 
children were with their mothers who were on foot near 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 47 

the wagon, making eighteen children in all. Mrs. Heald 
and Mrs. Helm rode on horseback with their husbands 
and Capt. Wells, while Mrs. Simmons, Mrs. Bell and 
Mrs. Holt with four other women, whose names are 
unknown, were on foot near the wagon containing the 
children, altogether constituting a group of seven women 
and eighteen children. 

No sooner had the train left the fort than the Indians 
rushed into the stockade to take possession and secure 
the booty abandoned and perhaps assure themselves of 
the treachery of Capt. Heald in destroying the arms and 
ammunition and also to prevent the return of any of the 
garrison when attacked. 

No more favorable position to suit the purpose of 
the Indians could have been selected than that occu- 
pied by the line of march. The slender column was 
flanked on the left by the lake and on the right by the 
sand hills which were occupied by the savages and from 
which they suddenly poured down a shower of balls 
without exposing their own persons. The column was 
instantly halted when Capt. Wells discovered that it was 
surrounded by the assailants, and at the suggestion of 
Capt. Wells, Capt. Heald formed a line and charged up 
the sand hills through the line of Indians, and took a 
position on a mound in the prairie where they held the 
enemy at bay for a time. In the meanwhile, the bag- 
gage train, with the women and children remained near 
the lake, with the twelve militia men and a mere hand- 
ful of regulars to guard them. The greater part of the 
soldiers who were not already killed or wounded had 
escaped with Capt. Heald and were now outside the 



4§ HEROES AND HEROINES 

Indian lines. The savages soon discovered the almost 
defenceless condition of the baggage train and of the 
women and children, fired a volley upon them and then 
rushed in from front, rear and right, with uplifted 
tomahawks. The few soldiers having discharged their 
rifles and being too closely pressed to reload them, 
continued the unequal contest with clubbed guns until 
every one was slain. 

It was at this time that the brave Capt. Wells returned 
through the Indian lines to the defense of the women 
and children, and dealt death among the savages until 
covered with wounds he fell with his face to the enemy, 
confronting death as a brave knight in defense of the 
helpless. He might have remained on the mound and 
surrendered with Capt. Heald and Lieut. Helm, and 
perhaps saved his life, but his cowardly and treacherous 
Miamis had betrayed him and fled to the enemy, leaving 
him to battle and die alone. His death was a fitting 
close to a heroic and honorable life and the name of 
Capt. William Wells will ever confer lustre on the list 
of American heroes. 

When the attack was made Corporal John Simmons, 
from his position near the great cottonwood, known as 
the " Massacre Tree," loaded and fired as rapidly as 
possible, and more than one dusky warrior bit the dust 
at the discharge of his unerring rifle, but the contest was 
too unequal to continue long. When too closely pressed 
to load and fire his gun he clubbed it and wielded it with 
tremendous effect. Finally covered with wounds he fell 
to rise no more. The vow of the previous night had 
been redeemed. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 49 

No sooner had Mrs. Simmons seen her husband fall 
beneath the blows of the savages surrounding him than 
she realized that all were at the mercy of the infuriated 
victors. A young Indian, tomahawk in hand, climbed 
into the now unguarded wagon, and in utter disregard of 
the tears and importunities of Mrs. Simmons and the 
other women, struck his bloody weapon into the heads 
of every child within, killing them instantly. The children 
unconscious of the danger which beset them had gayly 
enjoyed the ride from the fort until the fight began. 
The slaughter of these innocents was one of the most 
pathetic and fiendish incidents in the fearful annals of 
Indian warfare. 

At the first fire from the Indians Mrs. Holt was 
wounded in the foot and was rendered unable to walk 
when the charge was made upon the guard protecting 
the women and children. The savages came on enmassc 
firing iheir guns and uttering hideous yells. The horses 
harnessed to the wagons became ungovernable and ran 
over Mrs. Holt, trampling her to death. Mrs. Bell was 
also severely and perhaps fatally wounded and finally 
tomahawked to death. Her husband, a soldier, was 
slain in action, leaving little Peter Bell, a boy six years 
old, the lone survivor of the family, a prisoner in the 
hands of the savages. The boy was fortunately on foot 
and thus escaped the doom which fell upon all within 
the wagon. Three children besides those in the wagon 
were murdered on the spot, leaving six prisoners. Of 
these but two drifted back to civilization, Peter Bell and 
the infant babe of Mrs. Simmons, which escaped the fate 
of her little brother and the other children by being held 
in the arms of her mother during the massacre. 



50 HEROES AND HEROINES 

No sooner had the savages completed the destruction 
of the little force guarding the baggage train, even 
to the last man, than most of them hastened to aid in 
the capture of Capt. Heald, who with his party was now 
surrounded by an overwhelming force, from which there 
was no possible escape. Realizing this, he promptly 
surrendered, and the little band was marched to the 
captured train, where all were closely guarded while the 
soldiers cared for their wounded and disposed of their 
dead, making sure that the whites should not learn the 
extent of their loss, which was considerable considering 
the disparity in numbers of the combatants. The whites, 
however, were all experienced backwoods riflemen and 
did terrible execution with weapons greatly superior to 
the arms of the savages, thus amply avenging their 
deaths before they fell. The Indians, not yet satisfied 
with their fiendish barbarity, now proceeded to deliber- 
ately hack and mangle to death five of the captured and 
disarmed soldiers in the most diabolical manner. It has 
been surmised that this vile deed was done to make the 
loss of the whites equal their own. Whether this be 
true or false, the act remains one of the most infamous 
on record. For the purpose of distressing the other 
prisoners, men, women and children were compelled to 
witness this horrible butchery. The surviving captives, 
as they beheld this deed, almost envied their tortured 
comrades as death at length came to their relief. They 
could reasonably anticipate a like fate, unless their 
heartless captors could realize more ransom money, 
whiskey or ammunition for their lives than for scalps, 
the life itself being of no value in their view. Mrs. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 5 I 

Simmons discovered that the delight of the savages was 
much enhanced by tormenting their prisoners in every 
conceivable manner, thus almost invariably forcing from 
them manifestations of pain or anger which were sweeter 
than music in their ears. She therefore summoned all 
her marvelous fortitude to prevent any expression of the 
anguish which was crushing her great soul. She had 
scarcely thus determined until her resolution was put to 
the most excrutiating test. The Indians collected all 
the murdered children and laid them in a row with their 
faces downward. Two burly Indians then held her by 
the arms and led her slowly past the children, expecting 
that if her boy was one of the number she would make 
some demonstration at the sorrowful sight. But al- 
though her tearless eyes seemed fastened upon her dead 
darling's flaxen curls now matted by his blood, she 
passed the fearful ordeal and made no sign. Not alone, 
nor chiefly did considerations born of pride or hatred 
control her in this apparently stoical indifference. True, 
the indignation of her pure womanhood was aroused and 
fixed forever against a race capable of such hellish 
conduct, but to save if possible the corpse of her beauti- 
ful boy from farther mutilation and her little girl from a 
life with these monsters, or to perish as the last resort 
with it, the grand heroism nerved her to bear un- 
moved all events, and during the entire period of her 
captivity, eight long months, she met all the insults and 
injuries of her captors with defiance, never once during 
that period paying them the tribute of a tear. 



5 2 HEROES AND HEROINES 



CHAPTER IX. 



CAPTIVITY AND RANSOM. 

The arms and ammunition of the fallen and prisoners 
were collected. The dead were stripped of everything 
of value, were scalped and their scalps were strung on 
a pole and carried on their march as trophies of the 
campaign. The march was then made back to the fort, 
where the Indians camped for the night, and feasted on 
the stores, while around and near the old Massacre Tree 
lay stark in death thirty-eight soldiers, twelve children 
and two women, the mangled trophies of their infernal 
treachery and bloodthirstiness. Never was a memorial 
njore worthy its object, and never were noble and heroic 
deeds more appropriately commemorated than by the 
Pullman monument. Captain William Wells, Corporal 
John Simmons and the other soldiers who fell on that 
consecrated spot all deserve to have their names em- 
blazoned on that monument as brave martyrs to the 
folly of their officers. 

The horrors of the past and the dread of the future 
produced for Mrs. Simmons another sleepless night. 
Flushed with their success and indulging great expecta- 
tions of future triumphs, the Indians were equally wake- 
ful. In the morning the plunder was divided and the 
prisoners were separated, some going to the Kankakee 
village, some to Green Bay, and some to Michigan. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 53 

After moving out of the fort it was set on fire and 
burned, and the line of march for the respective villages 
was taken up. It fell to the lot of Mrs. Simmons to go 
to Green Bay and her captors crossed the Chicago river 
on the 1 6th of August and started for home. The 
weather being warm and pleasant the hardships of the 
journey to Mrs. Simmons consisted mainly in being 
compelled to do the drudgery of the Indians, such as 
gathering fuel, building fires and preparing food. On 
the march she walked and carried her babe, the entire 
distance being over two hundred miles. More than a 
week was employed in making the journey, a terrible 
week to our heroine who was sufficiently acquainted with 
the customs of the savages to anticipate a wild scene 
upon arrival at their destination. Her fears were 
abundantly verified. Swift runners heralded the ap- 
proach of the party to the members of the tribe in camp 
and upon the first glimpse of the returning column the 
women and children sallied forth to meet it. Upon the 
announcement of the death of their friends they com- 
menced a fusilade of insult upon the prisoners in every 
conceivable manner, such as spitting in their faces, pull- 
ing their hair, kicking them and tormenting them in 
various other ways. They finally reached the village 
where the prisoners were kept under close guard during 
the night. In the morning the village was early astir. 
The young Indians especially were abroad and clamoring 
in a way that boded no good to the unfortunate captives. 
Soon, old and young, male and female, were on the open 
ground outside the circle of wigwams and formed a long 
double line reaching to the verge of the surrounding 



54 HEROES AND HEROINES 

pines. The prisoners were then marched to one end 
of the line and each one of the soldiers was compelled 
to run the gauntlet receiving blows from the women and 
children who formed the line, and who beat them with 
sticks, switches and clubs. Mrs. Simmons witnessed 
this characteristic exhibition of savage cruelty and hoped 
that her sex and the infant she held in her arms would 
exempt her from the cruel ordeal; but to her dismay she 
was led in response to the universal clamor to the start- 
ing point. Looking for a moment in horror at that long 
line of women and children armed with implements of 
torture and eager to inflict punishment upon the pale- 
faced squaw, then glancing at the grim warriors looking 
on with apparent delight at the anxiety manifested by 
their wives and children, she almost lost heart for a 
moment and instantly realizing that in all the sur- 
rounding multitude there was not a heart to sym- 
pathize, not a hand to shield, before her was a long 
double line of savages awaiting her approach with 
uplifted clubs, all seeking to excel each other in wound- 
ing and bruising their victim. It was an awful moment 
for the poor woman but, as she had often done before in 
the last twelve days, when overcome with grief and 
almost famished with hunger, she turned her face to 
heaven and reposed her trust in her creator, her only 
source of hope and consolation, and as if inspired with 
superhuman strength, she wrapped the blanket about 
the babe that was clinging to her bosom for protection, 
and folding it in her strong arms to protect it from the 
cruel blows of the savages, she ran rapidly down the 
line, reaching the goal bleeding and bruised, but with 
the beloved object of her solicitude unharmed. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 5 5 

Immediately after passing the gauntlet Mrs. Simmons 
was astonished to receive an act of kindness for the first 
time since her captivity began. An elderly squaw took 
her kindly by the arm and led her into a wigwam, 
where her wounds and bruises were washed, food was 
given her and she was permitted to lie down and enjoy 
as well as she could a much needed rest. This kindness, 
so opportunely and unexpectedly extended was a great 
solace to the distressed woman. It revived her drooping 
faith and courage to encounter the trials yet before her. 
To ordinary view her situation seemed utterly desperate. 
She was five hundred miles from friends, the only 
exception being the poor savage who had befriended her 
at the hazard of her own safety, doubtless, and all the 
intervening territory swarming with murderous war 
parties of Indians. Bereft of the wise council and 
strong support of her husband, she had been taught by 
her bitter experiences to rely upon the All-wise and 
Almighty for power and guidance. 

It will not be out of place to state here that the squaw 
who so agreeably surprised Mrs. Simmons with her kind 
offices remained her friend so long as they were in the 
same camp. Mrs. Simmons ever after spoke of her as 
her Indian mother, and regretted that it was not in her 
power to repay her for the many favors she had received 
from her hands. It was a matter of especial regret to 
her that she had forgotten her name. Could the name 
and history of this noble daughter of the wilderness have 
been preserved along with the life of Black Partridge, 
their good deeds would atone somewhat for the cruelties 
of the more vicious of their race. 



56 HEROES AND HEROINES 

After the massacre of Fort Dearborn many of the 
more blood-thirsty young savages of the Pottawatomie 
tribe hastened east to participate in the siege of Detroit 
and Fort Meigs, the former having surrendered to the 
British and Indians on the day following the capture of 
Fort Dearborn. Sometime in the fall of 1812 the 
warriors of Green Bay with their prisoners left Green 
Bay and marched to the ruins of Fort Dearborn, thence 
around the end of lake Michigan and up to Mackinac, 
which was still in the hands of the British and Indians. 
It was winter when they reached Mackinac, and nego- 
tiations for the ransom of the prisoners were opened. 
Mrs. Simmons and her babe had suffered terribly while 
on the journey to Mackinac. Winter had come on and 
found her thinly clad, while she was often compelled to 
seek food from under the snow. Still, amid all her 
privations and hardships the heroic woman thought only 
of the safety and comfort of her child. While in Green 
Bay the Indians had, by various devices, attempted to 
take her babe from her, under the pretext of friendship. 
They declared they would relieve her from the burden 
of its care and would rear it as one of their own children. 
These repeated offers and their unconditional refusal 
led the mother to more closely watch over the babe, 
never permitting her to pass beyond her reach. 

After many refusals a chief seized the child by the 
arm and attempted to drag it from its mother's breast, 
at the same time brandishing his tomahawk over her 
head with violent contortions and gesticulations, and 
threatening to kill her instantly unless she resigned the 
infant. With a look of disdain and defiance, she replied 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 57' 

to his ferocious demonstrations that he might slay her, 
but separate her and her child, never! The chief finding 
her spirit unbroken and undismayed, relaxed his hold 
upon the child, and kindly though firmly said to Mrs. 
Simmons: "Good squaw; heap brave; may keep 
papoose." This was the last effort made to take her 
babe from her, though she maintained a vigilant watch 
upon it while she remained a prisoner. Neither was she 
farther molested in caring for it, save that the Indians 
compelled her to bathe it daily, for the purpose, as they 
said, of washing the white blood out of its veins. 

At Mackinac Mrs. Simmons was much encouraged by 
the hope of ransom or exchange, and in order to 
accomplish release on some terms she was sent in mid- 
winter from Mackinac to Detroit, a distance of over 
three hundred miles. Deep snows with occasional 
storms and blizzards impeded their march, which was 
on foot through a trackless wilderness. But for the 
knowledge Mrs. Simmons possessed that an effort was 
being made by government authorities to ransom her 
and her child and that every step she now took led her 
nearer liberty and friends she must have sat down in 
despair. Who can imagine the hidden power which sus- 
tained the poor woman as she trudged along from day 
to day on that long and dreary journey? Her clothing 
was woefully insufficient and in tatters, the weather was 
unendurable, and food so scarce that she often appeased 
hunger by eating roots, acorns and nuts found under the 
snow. Her babe, now a year old, had much increased 
in weight, yet with her own diminished strength she was 
obliged to carry it in her arms continually while she 
performed the camp drudgery for the Indians. 



58 HEROES AND HEROINES 

In the latter part of winter, when Mrs. Simmons with 
her captors reached Detroit they found that post in 
possession of the British and Indians, the latter having 
practical control. A large number of prisoners were 
captured by these allies at Frenchtown on the river 
Raisin in January, after a severe battle. Shortly after, 
Gen. Proctor, the British general, left for Maiden, across 
the Detroit river, when the Indians butchered part of 
the prisoners in cold blood. The wounded had been 
collected in two houses: these were set on fire, and when 
such of the prisoners as could move attempted to leave 
the burning buildings they were pushed back into the 
flames by the savages and perished there. The few who 
were not butchered or burned to death, were marched 
as slaves to Detroit and, dragged through the streets, 
exposed to sale as such. The citizens sacrificed every- 
thing they could spare to ransom them from this pitiful 
fate. Here Mrs. Simmons saw and recognized the 
savage Pottawatomies, and learned with horror of their 
barbarities at Frenchtown, and that the entire northwest 
was in possession of the Indians. She had fondly hoped 
that her perils would end when she reached Detroit, and 
expected that safety which it is the boast of England 
prevails beneath the British flag, but soon realized that 
the English officers had little disposition to restrain the 
cruelty of the Indians. From Detroit she was taken to 
Fort Meigs, and on the journey witnessed the destruction 
effected by the savages. Late in March she arrived at 
Fort Meigs; which was in command of Gen. Harrison, 
who was laboring day and night to strengthen the forti- 
fication against the expected attack from the British and 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 59 

Indians. Here Mrs. Simmons was set at liberty among 
friends and joyfully learned that a supply train had just 
arrived from Cincinnati, and would immediately return 
under a strong escort. The train was to pass on return 
within a few miles of her home in Miami county, Ohio. 
She was still two hundred miles from home, the streams 
were swollen, the swamps covered with water, the roads 
deep in mud and slush, and the weather chilly, all 
combined making the journey disagreeable. But Mrs. 
Simmons contrasted it with her recent experience, and 
decided that after traveling nearly 400 miles, from 
Mackinac to Fort Meigs, through fierce storms and bitter 
cold, poorly clad, almost starved, bearing night and day 
the growing burden of her child, a slave to savage brutes, 
and forced to plod every step of the long way on feet 
almost bare, swollen and bleeding, the present trip was 
a delightful pleasure excursion. She was now among 
friends, with no great apprehension of danger from ene- 
mies, warmly wrapped in blankets and sheltered in a 
comfortable government wagon, enjoying plenty of 
civilized food, and conscious that each day's march 
brought her nearer her longed for destination. 

On a day about the middle of April, 181 3, the train 
passed four miles south of her home. Here she left the 
wagons and escort with many heart-felt thanks for the 
kindness shown her on the march, and taking her babe 
in her arms walked swiftly along a dim path through the 
forest. The country was infested with predatory scalp- 
ing bands of Indians, ready to pounce upon defenseless 
travelers or isolated settlers for plunder or revenge. 
But the thoughts of the lone woman were busy with 



60 HEROES AND HEROINES 

retrospect of the eventful past, rather than with forebod- 
ings of the future. Every step was bringing her nearer 
the home which she had left two years before in com- 
pany with her young soldier husband and their first born, 
little David. During the short journey to the dear home 
what pictures rose before her mental vision. The march 
of the little family through the woods, the rumbling of 
the coming storm, the heart-sickening details of the 
evacuation and the massacre of the soldiers, death of her 
brave husband, the slaughter of the innocents, David 
among them, the awful death of the captured soldiers, 
the fearful gauntlet, the exhausting marches through ex- 
treme cold, blinding storms and freezing mud and water, 
the miseries of starvation, and if it were possible to 
represent it, over all and through all the anxiety which 
knew neither palliation or cessation. As her heart burned 
within her at the remembrance of these experiences she 
found herself at the door of the blockhouse. To the 
inmates she appeared as one risen from the dead, for 
they had long before resigned themselves to the belief 
that the entire family of their son had fallen. The 
mutual, mingled feelings of grief, joy, thankfulness and 
sympathy, may well be left to the imagination of our 
readers without attempted description. It was long 
before the terrible tidings became an old story in 
recital, and as for the narrator herself, her long repressed 
emotions were so completely broken down by the return 
that to use her own language, she "did nothing but 
weep for months." 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 6 1 



CHAPTER X. 



THE MASSACRE OF NEIGHBORS, HER ONLY SISTER AMONG 

THEM. 

Arrived at home Mrs. Simmons hoped that her trials 
were over, but she was soon to be terribly undeceived. 
Her only sister married a Henry Dilbone in Lancaster 
county, Pa., and they emigrated to Ohio in 1807, settling 
near the Simmons blockhouse where they opened a small 
farm. Here in the summer of 18 13 they were living 
happily with their family of small children. Occasion- 
ally an alarm of Indian raids caused them to take tem- 
porary shelter in the blockhouse. The situation in the 
northwest was truly gloomy. The barbarities of the 
Indians and their British allies at Mackinac, Dearborn, 
Detroit, Frenchtown, the river Raisin, and Fort Meigs, 
where prisoners fell into their hands had brought mourn- 
ing to almost every family. Many women and children 
had been carried away into slavery. So far the savages 
had been successful in almost every engagement. They 
were therefore frenzied with daring and cruelty. It had 
become a war of extermination on both sides, and the 
lives of friendly Indians were often sacrificed by the 
enraged frontiersmen in retaliation for crimes committed 
by the hostiles. Many camps of peaceable savages 
existed all through the settlements, and their inmates 
were compelled to endure many hardships as it was not 
safe for them to go abroad to hunt or s^ek food. 



62 HEROES AND HEROINES 

At this time there was an Indian camp at Piqua on 
the Miami river, and others in the vicinity. About the 
middle of August, 1 8 1 3, three or four Indians in a canoe 
dropped down the river to near the mouth of Spring 
creek, where they were seen late in the evening by Dr. 
Coleman, of Troy, and from this action were supposed to 
be a fishing party. On the following day, about four 
o'clock in the afternoon they fired on and killed David 
Gerard, near his residence, about two miles north of the 
mouth of Spring creek. Having secured his scalp they 
fled north about four miles to the Dilbone farm. Henry 
Dilbone and his family were at some distance from the 
house in a field, which was surrounded by woods on 
three sides, engaged in pulling flax, from which to make 
clothing for the household. Adjoining the flax patch 
was a small field of corn within which an Indian had 
secreted himself, waiting an opportunity to slay the entire 
family. The sinking sun casting its lurid glare on the 
surrounding forest, and the evening shades fast settling 
down upon that sultry August day, warned the tired 
laborers that their day's work was nearly completed. 
Little did they dream how near the end of their earthly 
toil approached. Their faithful dog discovered the 
savage lying in wait, gave the alarm and almost simul- 
taneously with his loud bark a gun was discharged, Mr. 
Dilbone receiving a ball from the rifle of the Indian in 
his breast. The assassin at the same instant sprang 
from his place of concealment and rushed forward to 
tomakawk and scalp his victim, but Mr. Dilbone as 
quickly recovered from the shock and ran rapidly south, 
leaping over the fence into the thick brush bordering a 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 63 

swamp where he fell. The savage abandoned the pursuit 
of Mr. Dilbone, perhaps not aware of the severity of his 
wound, being deceived by his speed, now turned his 
attention to Mrs. Dilbone, who at a glance saw the 
situation and fled into the corn on the west for conceal- 
ment, but was overtaken by the fiendish savage. A 
single blow from his tomahawk felled her to the earth, 
where, after taking her scalp, he left her weltering in her 
blood. 

During the time in which this terrible tragedy was 
being enacted, the four little children were horrified 
witnesses, and momentarily expected the same fate. 
The eldest son, John, being less than ten years of age, 
took his little brother, now in his seventh month, in his 
arms and set out for the house, but being encumbered 
with the babe and his little sisters who were but three 
and four years old, made slow progress over the rough 
ground. They had gotten but a little way when the 
fiend left his other victims and started toward them. 
But to the report of his own gun, the continued barking 
of the dog and the screams of Mrs. Dilbone, was now 
added the report of another fire arm a short distance 
away, which so alarmed the Indian that he instantly fled 
into the the deep forest leaving his rifle and blanket 
where he had dropped them in pursuit of his victims. 
He then, as stated in the History of Ohio, "hastened 
north to receive the bounty for his scalps from the 
British authorities." More probably, from the agents 
of the British Hudson Bay Company. The fact that 
the savage fled without his gun is evidence that he was 
terribly alarmed, and this belief in his imminent peril 



64 HEROES AND HEROINES 

was the salvation of the helpless children. The neigh- 
bors were speedily alarmed and collecting at once went 
in quest of Mr. and Mrs. Dilbone, accompanied by the 
eldest son as a guide. The dead body of Mrs. Dilbone 
was found which, with the children, was taken to the 
Simmons blockhouse for safety. In ignorance of the 
number of the assailants and fearing an ambuscade, 
darkness having already settled upon the dense forest, 
farther search for Mr. Dilbone was postponed until the 
following morning when a company of militia, under 
Capt. Wm. McKinney, which had rallied at the Sim- 
mons blockhouse during the night, started with the 
rising sun in search of the wounded man. In searching 
the neighboring woods the company passed so near him 
that he saw and heard them. As the rear soldier, Jacob 
Simmons, was passing by where he lay, Mr. Dilbone 
cried out in the accents of despair, " For God's sake, 
don't all pass me again! ' The poor man lay just where 
he had first fallen, so exhausted that he was unable to 
rise or make any outcry audible to his son and the party 
which on the previous evening removed the body of his 
wife, and whom he heard distinctly. All night he had 
lain between two oaks, one of which has been spared by 
time and the woodman and still stands, a living monu- 
ment to the memory of Henry Dilbone. How little can 
the men of this generation realize the dreadful anguish 
under that veteran oak during that awful August night. 
Uncertainty regarding the fate of his loved and helpless 
family prompted him to rise and drag himself to them. 
Failing utterly in this attempt, he strove to staunch the 
streaming wound in his bosom. Tortured with the 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 65 

agony of pain and consuming thirst, he could only lie help- 
less and well nigh hopeless and wait for the morning. 
Beside such anguish of body and mind how trivial seem 
many of our loudly lamented calamities. 

The almost unconscious man was borne to the block 
house, and a messenger was sent to summon the dis- 
tinguished Dr. Coleman from Troy — the only surgeon 
then residing in Miami county, who came and attended 
the dying sufferer until the following day when he expired 
in the presence of his children. 

It was a sad coincidence when the dead and mangled 
body of the only sister of Mrs. Simmons was brought to 
the Simmons homestead on the first anniversary of the 
murder of her husband and son and her own capture. 
Surely her vivid remembrance of the events of the 
massacre and consequent captivity had been sufficiently 
bitter without this final draught of the cup of sorrow on 
the first recurrence of the black day. Mrs. Simmons 
and the other inmates of the blockhouse had been in- 
formed by a runner of the hellish deed and awaited the 
coming of the mournful procession which bore the mortal 
remains of her beloved sister accompanied by her four 
small orphan children. Another coincidence connecting 
this transaction with her own sad story which profoundly 
impressed Mrs. Simmons was the fact of the babe in its 
seventh month being bereft of its parents as her own 
infant had been robbed of its father a year before at the 
same tender age. That night of sorrow was a painful 
vigil for Mrs. Simmons. Her only sister, beloved as a 
cherished companion for almost a life time, lay a bloody 
corpse in the house. The cries of bereaved children,, her 



66 HEROES AND HEROINES 

own thoughts mingling ghastly memories with well- 
founded forebodings of future outrages from the savages 
believed to be prowling in the neighborhood, together 
with the agonizing uncertainty regarding the fate of her 
wounded brother-in-law, all combined to render the 
watch of the terribly tried woman the extremity of 
mental torture. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dilbone were buried near where they fell, 
a few feet north of the section line, five miles east of 
Piqua on the turnpike and old military road over which 
a stream of emigrants have passed for more than eighty 
years, unconscious that they trod upon the unmarked 
graves of these martyrs to civilization. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 6j 



CHAPTER XI. 



AT REST 

During the years of peace and rural plenty which 
followed the eventful era of exploration and conquest 
the infant child of Mrs. Simmons, whose life morning 
opened so wild and ominous, grew to womanhood and 
became a happy wife and mother. Her husband, Moses 
Winans, settled in Shelby county, Ohio, when her aged 
mother took up her residence in her daughter's family. 
In 1853, Mrs. Simmons removed with the Winans family 
to Springville, Linn county, Iowa, where she died, 
February 27th, 1857, at the mature age of eighty years. 

The friends of Mrs. Simmons applied for and secured 
a pension for her, but she only received one payment, 
the pitiful sum of thirty dollars. The reason for the 
suspension of this payment was never known to her. 

In all the annals of the race no grander exhibition of 
courage, devotion and fortitude can be found. No 
Spartan mother could have more effectually fortified her 
feelings against expression, when the slightest manifesta- 
tion of weakness had been fatal. Upon this lone woman 
culminated all the horrors which the most ingenious 
tortures could devise, while she endured so well the 
extremity of mental anguish, yet these almost incredible 
sufferings could not force from her proud, heroic spirit 
the tribute of a solitary tear to her tormentors. She 



68 HEROES AND HEROINES 

passed the awful ordeal unscathed from dishonor or 
weakness and is entitled to a leading place among Amer- 
ican Heroines. 

A few words may be properly devoted at this place to 
a character previously introduced and well worthy 
mention on account of his exemplary and useful life. 
Tom Rodgers passed the three years of the war in the 
woods scouting and watching the movements of the 
Indians. He slept in the houses of settlers only in very 
cold weather. After the war he built for himself a small 
cabin in the forest on the banks of Spring Creek, in the 
vicinity of which he spent his life alone, hunting to sup- 
ply himself with food and clothing, until about 1850, 
when he became feeble from age and was taken to the 
county asylum, near Troy, where he died a year or two 
later. The service which he rendered during the war so 
endeared Tom Rodgers to the settlers that he was at all 
times a welcome guest, but he very seldom took advan- 
tage of their generosity, preferring the life of a hermit. 
He lived more than the allotted three score years and 
ten- -a life which experienced the marvelous transition 
from the unbroken solitudes of a trackless wilderness to 
the perfect civilization of a mighty commonwealth. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 69 



CHAPTER XII. 



AWAITING THE END. 

Mrs. Winans has unquestionably for many years been 
the sole survivor of the Fort Dearborn massacre. Cer- 
tainly for more than thirty years has this claim been 
true. It is also almost certain that she was the only 
person born there who escaped death on that fatal day, 
Peter Bell being the only competitor for this distinction 
with the weight of evidence in her favor. 

In the number of the "Illustrated Pacific States" for 
June, 1893, the following article with an excellent cut 
of the subject appears, contributed by Mrs. Florence M. 
Kimball. 

" It is interesting to know that there is now living the 
first white child born in the famous city by the lakes. 
Mrs. Susan Winans of Santa Ana, Orange county, Cali- 
fornia, enjoys this distinction. When old Fort Dearborn 
was standing on the site of one of the greatest cities on 
the American continent, and savage Indians held supreme 
sway, Susan Simmons first saw the light in that historic 
fort. 

" Her father, John Simmons, a Pennsylvanian by birth, 
married Miss Susan Millhouse, also a Pennsylvanian. 
He enlisted in the war of 1812, and was sent to the 
frontier, Fort Dearborn. While on a furlough he visited 
his young wife and persuaded her to return with him, 



JO HEROES AND HEROINES 

taking with them their little two-year old son, David. 
On February 13th, 181 2, Susan was born. The dis- 
comforts and trials of the young mother, surrounded by 
hostile Indians, and the life of her husband constantly 
endangered, can never be told. Her devotion to her 
family and wonderful heroism sustained her; even when 
in the following August her husband and little son were 
killed at the terrible Indian massacre, and she, with her 
infant, Susan, were taken prisoners, she still maintained 
her courageous bearing. In April of the next year an 
exchange was effected, and the bereaved mother and little 
daughter returned to the parental roof in Ohio. In 1828 
Susan Simmons was married to Mr. M. P. Winans. Nine 
children were born to them, six of whom are living, three 
in Orange count)', Cal. , and three in Iowa, to which state 
Mr. and Mrs. Winans moved in 1853. Born in the midst 
of dangers, her life has been one of heroic acts, noble 
sacrifices and gentle, womanly deeds of love and kind- 
ness. Although eighty-three years of age, she might easily 
be taken for sixty; her handwriting is that of a much 
younger person, and all her faculties are unimpaired. 
Enveloped in the domestic sunshine of her daughter's 
happy home, Grandma Winans' declining years are made 
bright and pleasant by its members. The children of 
the neighborhood love her as if she were their own. I 
visited her on May Day and found the vine-embowered 
cottage porch gay with May baskets left by the little 
ones, with the message, " For Grandma." 

"Anxious that Mrs. Winans should be represented 
either in the Woman's building at Chicago, or the recon- 
structed Fort Dearborn, I have made partial arrangement 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 7 I 

for a life-size crayon portrait to be made by her grand- 
daughter, who is a fine artist. Mrs. Potter Palmer has 
asked for the glass of jelly made by her, and placed by 
the citizens of Santa Ana on a handsome silver stand, 
for the Woman's building. In reply to the question if 
she would not like to visit the Exposition, she replied, 
with a smile of satisfaction: ' Oh, no; I have lived in 
the delightful climate of Southern California too long to 
be willing to encounter the storms of the East.' 

"Such, in brief," concludes an article in the San 
Francisco Evening Chronicle of corresponding date with 
the issue of the Illustrated Pacific States, " is the life 
history of the first white child born in Chicago. " And 
this humble sketch may fittingly conclude in the graphic 
language of another review of this eventful life: 

"In winterless California one of the most notable 
vestiges of the formative life of the nation abides in 
peace and quiet the inevitable change. Into her infant 
ears dinned the reveille of camp and the war hoop of the 
savage; her innocent eyes beheld father and brother fall 
in awful death. At a mother's breast she clung close 
that no club might bruise her tender frame. From that 
terrible dream of destruction and death to the vast 
Chicago, hostess of the nations in her peerless palaces 
by the illuminated lake, from the awful glare of the 
burning fort upon its unburied victims to the dazzling 
lights of Fairyland, from the temporary triumph of 
savagery to the eternal victory of the arts of civilization 
spans the extent of this phenomenal life." 



72 HEROES AND HEROINES 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE POTTAWATOMIE TRIBE. 

To perfect this narrative a brief history of the Potta- 
watomie Indians is essential. They are of Algonquin 
stock, crafty and hardy, possessing strong passions and 
as enemies are fierce and relentless. The establishment 
of Fort Dearborn in the center of their territory in 1803 
excited their jealousy. Gen. Harmer had penetrated to 
the border of their domain and laid the country waste 
in the fall of 1790. In November, 1 791 , Gen. St. Clair 
had reached the vicinity of the Indian villages for the 
purpose of destroying them. In 1794 General Wayne 
killed many of their warriors and laid the country waste 
early in the fall. In November, 181 1, Gen. Harrison 
defeated the Indians at Tippecanoe and destroyed the 
village with the food provided for the winter. These 
campaigns, although not uniformly successful, entailed 
great hardships upon the Indians. The destruction of 
their winter supplies at the approach of cold weather 
was exceedingly exasperating. These events recalled to 
their minds by the firey eloquence of Tecumseh became 
more provocation for war at each fresh recital. The 
Pottawatomies had long waited for the opportunity 
which now presented itself to seek revenge for these 
wrongs and to drive the Americans from their territory. 
The remembrance of the excesses perpetrated by vicious 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 75 

whites upon peaceable Indians added to the natural 
resentment of the fierce tribes. It is therefore not to be 
deemed surprising in view of the peculiarities of Indian 
character that the atrocities of Dearborn, Frenchtown, 
Meigs and Detroit should have been committed. 

We have written the bloody record of the Pottawato- 
mies as we found it, but desiring to do the tribe justice, 
we note with pleasure the good deeds of Black Partridge 
and the noble Indian mother to whose care and kindness 
Mrs. Simmons probably owed her life and the life of her 
child, and through the efforts of the chief her restoration 
to her friends. Black Partridge deserves more than a 
passing notice for his timely warning to the doomed 
garrison and his heroic efforts to save the lives of the 
whites on the battle field at the hazard of his own. His 
identity concealed beneath war paint, he was liable to 
be shot down by those whom he endeavored to save. 
There may have been others as noble as those we have 
mentioned whose names will forever remain buried in 
oblivion. Later in the history of Chicago and northern 
Illinois, Chief Shabbona was prominent as an advocate 
for peace. He stood by the side of Tecumseh when 
that warrior fell, and soon after became the fast friend 
of the whites and devoted the remainder of his life to 
sincere efforts to maintain peace between the settlers 
and Indians, and between the several tribes. Pokanoka, 
squaw of Chief Shabbona, faithfully seconded him in his 
labor of love and mercy. The lives of many of the 
earlier settlers were saved by the timely warning given 
them by these noble missionaries of mercy. 



74 HEROES AND HEROINES 

There are a few Pottavvatomies in Michigan, a few in 
Nebraska, Wisconsin and the Indian territory, but the 
majority of the tribe, consisting of the Prairie Band, 
reside on their reservation in Jackson county, Kansas. 
This reservntion is twelve miles square. They pay no 
taxes and maintain their tribal relation. The United 
States government sustains a very extensive boarding 
school here. During the last quarter of 1895 eighty- 
nine boys and fifty-four girls from the Pottawatomie tribe 
also attended Haskell Institute, an Indian Training 
School maintained at Lawrence, Kansas, by the general 
government. A school is also in operation in Nebraska 
for the benefit of the Pottawatomies. They have now 
standing to their credit on the books of the Interior 
Department at Washington a total of $635,816.28. 
Thus whatever were the provocations furnished by the 
whites to inspire the cruelties of the Pottawatomies in 
the remote past, it is obvious that the surviving members 
of the tribe are in receipt of especial favors from the 
pale faces of the present time. These figures also 
contrast with the pitiful sums paid by the same gov- 
ernment to the brave men who left homes and families 
exposed to the assaults of the merciless savages and 
from whose sacrifices and sufferings sprang the mighty 
empire of the northwest. While the descendants 
of the butchers of Fort Dearborn are lavishly pro- 
vided for by the government, it is not too much to 
expect that the memories of the men and women who 
planted the outposts of civilization and defended them 
with their blood and lives shall be held in everlasting 
remembrance by the millions who shall occupy the fair 
heritage these heroic pioneers won from the wilderness. 



FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 75 

The tribe touches by one link the period of the massa- 
cre. The present chief, Shaugh-nes-see, was born on 
the Kankakee in 1812. His grandfather, Suna-we-wone, 
was in command of the Pottawatomies at the Fort 
Dearborn fight. His father, Wab-sai was also a par- 
ticipant in the slaughter of the garrison. Shaugh-nes- 
see lives on the tribal reservation in Jackson county, 
Kansas. In a recent interview with him, he stated in 
reply to questions that the evening before the battle a 
white man (meaning probably Capt. Wells) who had been 
raised by Indians rode into the stockade, and that he 
tried to escape the next day but was killed by the 
savages. Also that a party of soldiers escaped to a 
mound but were captured and killed. To the question 
as to the number and disposition of prisoners taken, he 
believed that no captives were taken, the entire garrison 
having been slain. He had understood that the treach- 
ery of the officers in destroying the stores of the fort 
was one of the main causes of the massacre. All these 
statements were of course founded upon the traditions 
of the tribe often repeated in the hearing of the chief, 
and furnished an illustration of the reliability of such 
evidence as the sole support of history. 




N. SIMMONS, M. D. 

Proprietor of Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps. 



The following extract is from the Select Friend the organ of the order 
of that name: 

"The Doctor has been one of the leading Physicians of Lawrence for 
many years. He is also one of our most reliable citizens. He has bsen 
a member of the Legislature; Mayor of our city; member of the State 
Board of Health, Coroner; County Health Officer; President and Secre- 
tary successively of the State Medical Association, etc.; and has always 
acquitted himself with credit in whatever position he has been called. 
His Tablets were first made to use in his practice but soon, by reason of 
their intrinsic merit, acquired a local reputation, and for several years 
their use has been gradually extended until now their manufacture and 
sale has become a biiiness of considerable magnitude. We know of 
families who would not think of keeping house without them." 



THE HUMAN SYSTEM 



By the harmonious action of this mechanism it is constantly renewing 
itself. Worn, effete material is eliminated by the excretory organs, while 
fresh supplies are prepared and assimilated to take its place. If the 
equilibrum between these functions is disturbed, and elimination proceeds 
rapidly, while assimilation is suspended, the system becomes emaciated 
and blood impoverished, resulting in anemin, vertigo, neuralgia, cramps, 
nervous headache indigestion, constipation, paresis, paralysis, palpita- 
tion, irregular action of the liver, kidneys, skin, brain and heart, with 
horrid mental forebodings and fleeting pains in all parts of the body. 

To attempt to correct this condition with active cathartics, only in- 
creases the danger, by hastening excretion and farther impairing assimila- 
tion. To attempt this correction with opiate or alcoholic narcotics is 
equally fallacious, for while excretion is delayed, assimilation is also im- 
paired, and life endangered by the retention of the morbid material. 
On the other hand, if excretion is retarded and assimilation active, 
perversion of the blood follows. The process of the renewal of life is 
arrested, colonies of microbes find lodgment in the accumulated detritis 
which clog the free circulation of the blood, resulting in congestion, tu- 
berculosis, scroffula, eczema, tumors, cancers, consumption, epilepsy, 
paralysis, apoplexy, rheumatism, gout, dropsy and Bright's disease, 
with blood poison and physical degeneration of the brain, lungs, heart, 
liver, stomach and kidneys. 

The proper remedies to employ are those that vitalize all of the func- 
tions of the system, and restore lost action of the stomach and bowels, 
strengthen and energize the brain and nervous system, stimulate the liver 
aal kidneys, and give force to the heart and circulaton of the blood, 
thereby relieving congestion and preventing the development of the 
many dangerous diseases above enumerated before organic disintegra- 
tion has proeeded too far to admit of recovery. 

There is no household remedy on the market that is equal to 

SIMMONS LIVER TABLETS OR GINGER SNAPS 

to correct these morbid functional processes and restore normal action. 
They are so accurately compounded that while they hasten the removal 
of waste, they stimulate assimilation and maintain hurmony in the organ- 
ism which is indispensible to health. 



(J) RIG IN OF THE IjAHE. 

THE UNIQUE NAME OF 

SIMMONS LIVER TABLETS OR GINGER SNAPS. 



Did not originate in an eccentric freak of the proprietor. 
They were widely' known by this name many years before 
printed labels or circulars were prepared and could not 
well be changed without causing unavoidable confusion. 

HOW TO DO GOOD. 

Call on your neighbor who has sick headache and 
often complains of constipation, biliousness, torpid liver, 
weak stomach and is generally miserable and don't let him 
or her rest until made happy by the exhilerating effects of 

Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps. 



NOTICE. 

It is due the public to say that Simmons Liver Tablets 
or Ginger Snaps will not cure all organic diseases in their 
advanced stage; notably cancers and consumption, but 
their timely use will prevent organic disintegration by ar- 
resting the morbid processes leading to their destruction. 



They keep the Life Renewing Mechanism Running. 

If the dotage of age or decline is creeping upon you take 
Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps and stimulate 
the renewal of life and you will be surprised at the happy 
results, that aged and haggard look and feeling due to 
general debility will be replaced by youthful freshness and 
vivacity. 

A HINT. 

Persons who use Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger 
Snaps seldom have to call in a physician. 



To the Despondent. 

Do not abandon hope while you can purchase 200 
doses of Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps for Si. 00 
and remove the physical condition which makes you rnel- 
ancholy and miserable. 

READ THE FOLLOWING SPECIAL DIRECTIONS. 

For Constipation: — Take 1 to 6 tablets, or as 
many as may be required 3 times a day until action is es- 
tablished. Then enough daily at bed time to produce a 
free operation on the following morning. 

For Sick Headache, Vertigo and Dizziness:— 

Take the same as for Constipation and it will only be a ques- 
tion of time when vou will be free from your tormentor. 

For Indigestion, (Dyspepsia): — Take as many 
as the bowels will bear immediately before or after each 

meal. 

Congestion or Inflamed Liver:— Symptoms; fulness, 

pain and soreness at the lower edge of the ribs on the right 
side. 

Take 1 to 4 tablets ever}' 3 hours until free action is es- 
tablished; then repeat from 1 to 3 times a day as long as 
required. 

Weakness of the Kidneys and Bladder: — Elderly 

persons, especially who are much disturbed of their rest 
at night will be greatly relieved by taking as many as the 
bowels will bear at early bed time. 

For Old Age: — Use freely and postpone its ravages. 

Threatened Paralysis and Apoplexy: — Symptoms; 

numbness, tingling in the extremities, pain and dizziness in 
the head, weakness, unsteady gait and loss of memory. 
Take as many as the bowels will bear from 1 to 3 times a 
dav. 



For Heart Failure, Weakness:— Take as many as 
the bowels will bear 2 or 3 times a day as a tonic to the 
pneumogastric nerve and muscles of the heart. 

In all Fevers: — Take enough daily to keep the bowels 
in good condition. 

For Diarrhoea:— Take a tablet every 2 hours until 
the discharges are corrected then 2 or 3 times a day. If 
chronic take 1 from 1 to 3 times a day. 

For Dysentary:- — Take 2 to 5 tablets every 3 hours 
until natural stools are produced; then repeat 3 times a 
da\ 7 . 

Explanation: — As many as the bowels will bear means 
not to exceed two or three operations daily. 

Containing no mercury, Simmons Liver Tablets or Gin- 
ger Snaps may be taken by persons of all ages and condi- 
tions for an indefmate period without injury. Children must 
take less in proportion to age. 

Call for Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps and re- 
fuse all substitutes as there is no similar remedy on the 
market that can be safely employed in their stead. 

For Sale by all Druggists, or sent 
by Mail on receipt of Price. 



A SINGLE BOX FOR 25 CENTS. 



Five Boxes for $1.00. 



^jT**>iH««'»^*n& 



ADDRESS, 

N. S/MMONS, M. D., 

Lawrence, Kansas. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

urn ii 1 



011 782 617 A # 





